community, connecting, and change

donaghy once told me that as soon as you start finding dots and accepting the challenge of connecting them, the more they start flying out at you. that couldn't be more true than right now.

i met today with someone who is an osi fellow in baltimore. she has been working towards this idea of displaying "art banners" in neighborhoods, and came across "a neighborhood called baltimore" when we had a table set up at the walters a few weeks ago. she sent paula an email, suprised that she had never heard of our project, because it was so similar to what she was working on. i gathered a group of mica students who are all simultaneously working towards the same sort of baltimore oriented stuff (lauren and stephanie from ancb. carey who is working on selecting colors with and for communities. and andy who is making a vectorized map of baltimore, something that has some pretty huge potential.) and we all met with her at cafe doris to hear her plans. i didn't quite know what to think afterwards. what is our role in all of it? besides the obvious connections. and can i really commit to another collaboration? to be honest though, i think she needs us on her team.

afterwards, carey and i talked, each trying to figure out how we felt about the meeting and idea. we're both graphic designers, so the way we see things is very similar. besides the font and color choice on her mock up, there were obvious flaws in her concept that we were able to pick up on just from the work we've done in the community since coming to baltimore. sometime during our conversation we realized that we both have bernard canniffe next monday for graphic design 1. carey started talking about all of the amazing things bernard is doing. and the role he sees graphic design playing in baltimore. he told me about piece studio, which i was clueless about. i had him send me the link to the website right away.

i had the weirdest feeling as i watched the page load and began to read the text. maybe its the feeling that the world isn't as big as you had once thought. that it's even smaller. so many of us are on the same page. how can i have been here for so long, and not know this existed? i can't believe that such a force was coming out of mica, and i had no idea.

and especially to find this all after leaving my critique with fabienne yesterday a little bit unsure about the direction i would be pushed in by the graphic design department next year. now, more than ever, i know that this is where i need to be. next year i will get to learn from, and work with, these extremely talented designers who are practicing design in a way that gets me really giddy. and to go back even further and make a connection... two of them have been big players in something called project m. they did some incredible stuff last summer that i remember reading about in good magazine. i ripped it out and stuck it in my cap sketchbook last summer. because that is truly my idea of community arts.